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Head to head: Nokia Lumia 1520 and Apple iPhone 6 Plus

Is Apple's iPhone 6 Plus a 'phablet'? No, let's not go down that naming route. The Lumia 1520 definitely feels bigger in the hand though, and more deserving of the term. But the two are most definitely close enough for a detailed comparison, in terms of specs, features and imaging abilities. Even as a Windows Phone enthusiast, the iPhone 6 Plus does feel more mature, thanks mainly to its ecosystem and ability to work completely in landscape/tablet mode and with the likes of Bluetooth keyboards. But let's look in more detail. A lot more detail.

[See below the table for the detailed imaging head-to-head]

As usual, I pick out winning categories in green, for interest sake - though don't take these too seriously. And note that many categories simply don't have a winner, either because the differences are subjective or because the two are roughly equal overall.

8MP 1/3" sensor, OIS is superb, excellent and very fast results as long as there's enough light, but the algorithms betray the physics when light levels drop, and LED flash takes an eternity to fire, so is best avoided, shooting bursts instead. It's a mess. (cough. Xenon needed.) HDR is automatic, when needed, plus photo bursts are easy by just long pressing the shutter icon.

21MP PureView oversampling 1/2.5" sensor, OIS, flexible software control over settings, dedicated camera shutter button and launch key, 2x genuinely lossless digital zoom. Good results, even zoomed or reframed. Results in poor light are decent, except where a subject is moving. Camera performance will get better very shortly when the new version of Lumia Camera is released, too, including 'after the fact' Rich Capture and Dynamic Flash.

Imaging (video)

1080p video capture at 60fps, with good stabilisation, though curiously not using OIS, but digital techniques. 720p/240fps makes for good slow-motion effects. Decent audio too, in mono (in my tests).

1080p video capture, with 3x lossless zoom during recording and full 3-axis OIS helping a lot, especially while zoomed. Four HAAC mikes and Rich Recording make for pro level audio too. The new version of Lumia Camera will bring genuine 4K bursts of video, with the facility to extract 8MP stills natively.

Music and Multimedia

Decent mono speaker, 3.5mm headphones

Decent mono speaker, 3.5mm headphones

Gaming

Great selection of games, this is the iPhone, though not all titles use the 1080p screen yet, of course.

Game selection is very much more limited, as I've commented on recently.

Navigation

Apple Maps relies on an Internet connection (there's only limited caching of maps) but is otherwise pretty good now for day to day navigation, plus Google Maps is available, and even HERE Maps soon, I'll bet, in beta, albeit not baked into the OS, as with Windows Phone.

The HERE Maps/Drive suite is built-in, with the 100% offline routing and maps that don't expire. Plus live traffic, good public transport advice and innovative 'live sight' functions. No official Google Maps as an alternative, but HERE's suite is so slick on Windows Phone that nothing else is arguably needed.

The iPhone App Store is very fully stocked. Everything mainstream is here, plus plenty of boutique/niche apps. Perfect access to both Apple, Google and now even Microsoft platform services!

Windows Phone now has just about every mainstream app covered. Niche/boutique apps are often an issue, though... Also anything to do with Google services, sadly.

Upgrades and future

The iPhone 6 Plus will be updated with new iOS versions until at least 2016.

Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 (in Lumia Denim) is due out formally in the next week or two, bringing Cortana officially and many other enhancements. Updates to the 1520 will continue well into 2015, under Microsoft's banner, including an upgrade to the unifying Windows 10.

Imaging comparison

Following on from my Lumia 1020/iPhone 6 Plus imaging comparison, here's a shorter equivalent for the Lumia 1520. As with previous comparator-based articles, please do allow the images/page to load fully and then use your mouse or pointer over the panes to directly compare 1:1 crops from the two phones.

And note that the image framing doesn't match up exactly because of focussing, field of view and resolution (6MP in 16:9 versus 5MP) differences. But I'd rather leave original quality at 1:1 rather than start resampling the images and skewing the results.

Test 1: Sunny rose

The weather's breaking in the UK, but in a dash of sunlight, I grabbed this rose(?) Here’s the full scene, as shot by the Lumia 1520:

And here's 1:1 detail from the centre (ish) of the frame, using our famed interactive comparator, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the image fragments:

Tough to score this one because of the framing differences (not least because the 1520's larger optics mean that it can't focus quite as close). There's something rather beautiful about the iPhone's smoothed output, though raw texture is there in the Lumia's version.

Test 2: Hazy sun, zoomed

With the sun hazy and rain on the horizon, I had a play with zoom on this suburban scene. Each is zoomed by about 2x, losslessly on the 1520 (the limit of its zoom in the interface) and digitally/interpolatively on the iPhone 6 Plus. Here’s the full scene, as shot by the Lumia 1520 (i.e. before zooming):

And here's 1:1 detail from the centre (ish) of the frame, using our famed interactive comparator, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the image fragments:

Rather predictably, the PureView lossless zoom produces a clearer, more detailed image than the digitally zoomed iPhone version. No surprises here, and still a USP for the oversampling Lumias, led by the 1020, of course, which I tested against the iPhone 6 Plus here.

Test 3: Sunny window-sill, peanuts(!)

Another macro subject, but hey, I had to grab the sun where and when I could find it! Here’s the full scene, as shot by the Lumia 1520:

And here's 1:1 detail from the centre (ish) of the frame, using our famed interactive comparator, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the image fragments:

Framing differences aside, the iPhone 6 Plus does reproduce the texture and printing dithering on the peanut jar very clearly. Plus some attractive saturated colours, something which the Lumia range is normally very well known for!

Test 4: Pitch black room, flash test

No, not me with some beer, LED flash on each phone would make a mess of this. So a static subject, our family DVD rack. Here’s the full scene, as shot by the Lumia 1520:

And here's 1:1 detail from the centre (ish) of the frame, using our famed interactive comparator, just wait to make sure the page has fully loaded and then use your mouse or trackpad pointer to compare the image fragments:

Again, there's not much to choose between the two photos. The iPhone 6 Plus image looks brighter and clearer, but also looks a bit 'processed', thanks to the noise reduction and sharpening (tastefully done, but still present), while the 1520 looks marginally more natural?

Although raw image quality across my test scenes is pretty even overall (and in some cases the iPhone even arguably wins), you'll see from the table above that the lossless zoom and marginally better performance/results in low light, plus the upcoming Dynamic Flash and other features (including the 4K video bursts), have ended up with me awarding a win to the 1520. It's no 1020, but it's... enough.

Verdict

Anyone adding up the green 'wins' above will note that, except for the price, the iPhone 6 Plus and Lumia 1520 are level at three apiece. Which is, I think, as it should be. Of course, there's the choice of interface/OS, which is fundamental, but otherwise the two devices are pretty level overall, both flagships for their respective manufacturers and operating systems.

Price is a factor for most people though, as with the Lumia 1520 currently at half the price of the iPhone, it's tempting to go with sheer value for money, surely? Or, to be controversial, to go for three or four Lumia 1320s, which currently sell around the £200 mark, and give one to every member of your family(!)